Lebanon News and World News Live from Beirut

South African police have arrested a man who they say swallowed 220 polished diamonds in an attempt to smuggle them out of the country. The man was arrested as he waited to board a plane at Johannesburg airport.

Lebanon’s private sector imports of diesel jumped in April and May, data obtained by Reuters shows, and industry analysts say Lebanese factions are smuggling the fuel into Syria where supplies are desperately tight due to Western sanctions.

Wearing dark glasses as he sat in a fashionable Beirut cafe, Abu Abode, a Lebanese arms dealer, did not mince his words as he described the flourishing business of smuggling weapons into neighbouring Syria.

March 14 MP Ahmad Fatfat said on Friday that the report in Al-Hayat newspaper that was published earlier in the day about a Syrian embassy vehicle that was trying to smuggle arms from Lebanon to Syria was true. Fatfat , who represents the Future Movement in the parliament also told MTV that “the vehicle belongs […]

Barcelona footballers don’t just have a slick passing game, they can also secretly indicate arms smuggling routes to Syria, a pro-government Syrian television channel claimed this week. Without a hint of irony, Addounia TV superimposed a map of Syria on a screen to show how Lionel Messi and his team-mates, representing smugglers, had kicked a […]

Syrian troops began planting mines at dawn in an area facing two Lebanese villages – Knaysseh and Al-Hnayder in northern Lebanon in an apparent bid to stem weapons smuggling along the porous border, a Lebanese official told AFP.